Perseverance Pays Off

By Ernest Holmes

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As heard on This Thing Called Life Sunday, February 12, 1950 Perseverance Pays Off Today, we are going to talk about perseverance and the power of faith. In beginning our discussion I want to tell you about a man who maintained an orphanage through perseverance and faith, one who had a complete conviction that no matter what was needed, when he prayed the need would always be met. One day the manager of the orphanage came to him and told him they had no food for the children's dinner. Our friend who believed in prayer said that he would ask God for food, and retired to his room and prayed. About thirty minutes before mealtime the steward again came to him, saying, There is no food. Now this man of faith followed the advice of Jesus. He persevered in his belief that food would be provided and in time. So he told the steward to go out and get ready for the food that would be there. In a few moments a wagon loaded with provisions came tearing up to the door and the children enjoyed their regular evening meal. Millions of dollars came to this institution during the lifetime of this man as a direct result of his persevering prayer. His life was filled with miracles of faith. Why couldn't you and I exercise the same belief in God and get the same results? Surely, This Thing Called Life will not give to one and withhold from another. Jesus said that God causes His sun and rain to come alike on the just and the unjust and Isaiah exclaimed, "Whosoever will may come." It is not God's reluctance, but our acceptance that we should watch. Here was a man who would never permit himself to doubt. Perhaps, early in his experience, there were times when his prayers did not find fulfillment. But unlike most of us, he persevered. Be was like the woman Jesus told about who came to a judge in the middle of the night to ask for help. She rapped at the door and the judge told her to go away and come back in the morning, that he and his family were in bed and didnt wish to be disturbed. But the woman paid no attention whatever. She kept on rapping until finally, in exasperation, he opened the door and attended her needs. Jesus was the wisest man who ever lived, and he wouldn't have told us this story unless it had a meaning for all of us. Her persistence was an act of faith, a complete conviction that whatever is right, ought to be and can be. Thomas Edison would try hundreds of experiments with certain ideas and when one failed he would merely say, I am that much nearer the answer. If I have failed to arrive at it, it makes no difference. At least I am that much nearer the goal. Somewhere along the line I shall find the answer. This was one of the great secrets of Edison's success. He exercised limitless patience. But this patience was not with the laws of nature. It was not with This Thing Called Life at all. The patience Edison exercised was with himself. He knew the law was there and that in the split second when he obeyed it, it would answer.
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I have known a number of people who did what has been called praying through. That is, they kept right on praying until they got an answer. Perseverance and persistence are as necessary to the development of faith as they are to other experiments with the laws of nature. The late Alexis Carrel said that faith acts like a physical law in that it is a law of cause and effect. He became a great man of science through his faith and technical skill. He not only sought Divine guidance, he found it. And you may be certain that he didn't find it immediately. Like Edison, he must have gone through a period of trial and error, of accomplishment and failure, until finally one thing stood out boldly in his mind, there is a power for good in the universe which anyone can use. Carrel said in his famous book, "Man the Unknown," that above most anything else on earth the world needs groups of people who will create great pools of faith. And the late Dr. Steinmetz that electrical genius, said that the next hundred years will develop a knowledge of the laws of mind and spirit that will far outmeasure the discoveries of the last seven thousand years. At Duke University there is a man who for twenty years has been scientifically testing the transcendent powers of the mind. I am told that in some of these investigations they have tried thousands and thousands of experiments. Finally they are bringing certain facts to light about the mind that up until now have been looked upon as being absurd. This is all done in a psychological laboratory under test conditions. And at last the world is beginning to accept the results. They are bringing something new to all of us, new and wonderful. Why then, shouldn't you and I set up a laboratory of thought in our own minds and see what we can do with the power greater than we are? You won't need any elaborate equipment for this because This Thing Called Life has already furnished your laboratory with all the instruments it will ever need. Life has already given you the power. It is yours to use. You already possess the pearl of great price. Today, we are celebrating the birthday of another famed apostle of perseverance. Abraham Lincoln, one of the world's great souls, would have well understood the patient and persistent efforts of men like Edison, Steinmetz and Carrel. No dramatists have ever depicted a character more plagued by failure, nor none more blessed with the gift of persistency. Lincoln entered business and failed. He ran for the United States Senate and was defeated. He applied for an appointment to the United States Land Office and was rejected. He ran for the Vice Presidency and lost and yet in the end became one of America's greatest Presidents and one of the world's greatest statesmen. Take then, the lesson of these men. What if you do have memories of failure and doubt? They are only experiments that didn't work out right. Why shouldn't you, too, have the same conviction that Edison, Steinmetz and Jesus had? What if there have been waste places in your life? There is no use crying over spilt milk, the dairyman will be bringing another bottle in the morning.

So life comes new and fresh when the sun of hope rises to dispel the darkness of fear and uncertainty. Sooner or later, faith will count its string of pearls unto the end and find the symbol of the ages the union of man with God. Why not get busy in your laboratory of thought, using the instruments This Thing Called Life has placed there - hope, faith, trust, love, perseverance, courage and confidence. They are the gift of God to you. Since this laboratory is in your own mind, it is always with you. The Bible refers to it as the secret place of the Most High within you and "they that dwell in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Here is sufficient inspiration for your experiment. Life has cast the refreshing coolness of its shadow across everything on earth. There is an oasis in every desert. There is a rock in every weary land that shelters and refreshes with cooling draughts from heaven. The act of faith is so simple, so direct, so childlike in its approach. It is exactly what the Great Teacher told us, an act of belief. And if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Life itself will never let you down. This law of good surrenders its whole power to you when you use it rightly. It is simple enough to know whether you are doing this. All you need ask is: Am I using this law to give more life to myself and others and in such a way as to rob no one? This good includes your personal life as well as that of others. This law wouldn't be unless it were supposed to be used. Men of great faith have demonstrated that the law of good exists and that it may be used. So you may begin your experiments with complete confidence. The laboratory is set up, the instruments are in your hands, and you are going to use them. Lets make believe you are a fine surgeon who finds it necessary to remove some obstruction from the physical body. He goes about his work in confidence, knowing that when he does remove the obstruction nature will produce a healing. Perhaps there is a little pain in the process but he is looking to the end, not the means. Let the patient lie quietly in bed for a few days, doing whatever is necessary, under the doctor's care, to comply with the laws of nature. All will be well. You are dealing with the Great Physician because you are dealing with Life itself. And now, what are some of the things that you must remove with your instrument of faith? Perhaps one of the great obstructions is the doubt of your ability to use faith, for it is not a doubt about faith itself - we all have that we are born with it. What you doubt is not the possibility of faith but your ability to use it. Like a good physician let us diagnose the case. What is faith, anyway? Stripped naked and bare it is a state of mind, a certain but definite way of thinking. Thoughts are things in a very literal sense. If a thought of doubt is a barrier, a thought of faith will remove that obstruction. Faith is the instrument in your hands . . . the physician to yourself, which enables you to cut away the barriers of doubt and fear. Just as the woman beat on the door until the judge opened it, and the man received food for the orphanage, so
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your thought of faith can break down the barriers that appear to obstruct your hope and confidence in life. It doesn't make the slightest difference what your past has been or how many times you may have failed. Life, itself, cannot fail and it won't fail you. If you have tried a thousand times, remember that at our great Universities our scientists sometimes try their experiments many thousands of times. So can you. But just as they know that there is an immutable law of nature upon which they are depending, so you may be certain that there is an immutable law of God upon which you are depending. Somewhere along the line you will succeed. You cannot fail. Gradually as the thoughts of doubt, fear, and uncertainty are removed and their influence fades away into the nothingness from which they came, you will find faith, like a star of hope, shining bright across your pathway.

DR. HOLMES' MEDITATION as heard on "This Thing Called Life" Sunday, February 12, 1950 As we have often discussed, there is a power for good in the universe available to all of us. Our approach to this power is through faith, prayer and conviction, for faith and prayer are our communion with the Invisible, with This Thing Called Life. It is through communion that we make our requests known, and through faith that we receive an answer. Let us take as our thought for today: "Thou shalt call upon the Lord and he will answer." And in our meditation let us see if we cannot arrive at a place of complete conviction. Let us shut every other thought from the mind, everything that could distract our attention, and listen quietly and peacefully, but with deep and sincere trust. I do believe that the law of good is around me. I do believe that Divine Love, acting through this law, can and will meet all my needs. I am entering into the peace and quiet of this thought, with absolute conviction, as I affirm that in the Divine Presence there is fullness of life for me and for everyone I may be thinking of. I accept Divine Guidance in everything I do. I believe a power greater than I am will bring to me, this day, the love, the happiness, and the friendship that I wish for the whole world. I believe that today I shall have the opportunity to comfort and help everyone I meet and in so doing I know that I shall be blessed with the joy of giving as well as the happiness of receiving. I expect to be happy. I anticipate goodness. I enter into peace. And I know that as I "call upon the Lord" and the law of good, I shall receive a direct answer. And may this good I am to receive become a blessing to everyone I meet.